Industry analysis of the staffing and recruiting sector — including market trends, staffing firm best practices, client partnership models, and how technology is transforming the way staffing agencies source and place talent.
By Devin Hornick, Co-Founder, KORE1 KORE1 ranks first among contract-to-hire staffing companies in 2026, scoring highest on the Placement Authority Score across conversion support, industry depth, and review signals. Insight Global leads for high-volume enterprise programs. Robert Half is the strongest option for finance and accounting C2H specifically. All 7 firms scored using independently sourced … Read more
By Jennifer Burdick, Recruiting Manager, KORE1 Scale an engineering team with contractors by sizing to the review hours your own engineers can spare, embedding one contractor per two permanent engineers, putting heavier loads in pods with their own leads, and adding people in waves. Budget is rarely the first thing to run out. Permanent attention … Read more
By Devin Hornick, Co-Founder, KORE1 KORE1 ranks first among contract staffing companies in 2026 for fill speed and W-2 compliance clarity. Insight Global leads on scale, Kforce on finance/tech depth, TEKsystems on enterprise VMS fit. Six national contract staffing companies compared on fill speed, W-2 compliance, and specialization. KORE1 ranks first for fast, compliant fills … Read more
By Jennifer Burdick, Recruiting Manager, KORE1 When a technical contractor isn’t working out, spend a few days finding out whether the setup, the person, or the scope is failing, then coach, replace, or convert to match. A setup problem usually clears within two weeks of honest coaching. A person problem is fastest to fix through … Read more
By Mike Carter, Managing Director, KORE1 You retain contractors through the end of an assignment by keeping the pay rate in line with the market, keeping the work inside the scope they accepted, and telling them early what happens after the end date. Perks barely register. The technical contractors we see quit early mostly go … Read more
By Tom Kenaley, President and Senior Partner, KORE1 Year-end budget hiring works when contract talent starts early enough to bill real hours before the fiscal year closes, because contract spend lands as hours are worked, not when a purchase order is signed. A senior contractor who starts in the third week of October bills about … Read more
By Tom Kenaley, President and Senior Partner, KORE1 Contract buys hours against a defined scope, interim buys a full-time leader to hold an empty seat until it is filled, and fractional buys senior judgment part-time on an ongoing basis. Duration is what most people compare first, and it is the axis that tells you the … Read more
By Mike Carter, Managing Director, KORE1 Direct sourcing fills contingent roles from a private talent pool a company already owns, usually alumni, retirees, and silver-medalist applicants, while a staffing agency recruits people the company has no relationship with. Neither one is a program by itself. The decision worth your time is which requisitions go down … Read more
By Robert Ardell, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, KORE1 No federal or state law caps contractor tenure at 18 months. The rule is a private risk-management convention, and the court case that inspired it was lost over benefit plan language and IRS control tests, not over calendar time. Somebody at your company can probably recite the … Read more
By Jennifer Burdick, Recruiting Manager, KORE1 Most mid-market contingent programs run well on three to six staffing suppliers per job family, not three to six across the whole company. The number is set by how much requisition flow each supplier gets, not by headcount or total spend. Fourteen years of recruiting, thirteen of them at … Read more
